An Epiphany Moment | The Magic of Real Wisdom (1 Kings 10)

Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus as the Savior for all nations, shining light on the mystery and majesty of God’s grace. Just as the Queen of Sheba traveled far to witness Solomon’s wisdom, and the Magi journeyed to worship the newborn King, we come seeking answers and awe. In Jesus, someone far greater than Solomon, we find the ultimate wisdom and the radiant light of grace. Today, as we reflect on the magic of God’s love revealed to all people, we rediscover how this grace transforms our hearts, opens our hands, and renews our childlike wonder in the One who knows us fully and loves us completely.

Transcript

I have a riddle for you. Here it goes: What is wasted by the young and longed for by the old? Youth! George Bernard Shaw would certainly agree. As he hit his seventies, the Irish playwright known for Pygmalion, couldn’t help but lament: “Youth was wonderful; what a pity it had to be wasted on the young!” The younger you are, typically the more your creativity and imagination color your look at life. There is so much to marvel at, the magic of wonder all around! Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about being a kid again, even if it was just for a minute? I’m not talking about longing for less responsibility or having the energy of a three-year-old. I’m talking about seeing life through the lens of a child again. When we are young, the world is full of magic. There is so much that defies explanation and exceeds understanding. As a result, the world is a glimmering, awe-inspiring place. But as we get older, the magic of wonder starts to fade. We know more. We understand more. Little by little, life loses its luster. G.K. Chesterton captures this, “The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.” Do you think this same phenomenon happens when it comes to our view of grace? We are around the treasure of Jesus so much that little by little, it loses its luster, our insider status clouding the breathtaking wonder of God’s selfless love for us. How can we regain the magic of grace?

Such “hard questions” were weighing down the Queen of Sheba’s mind and heart. She needed answers desperately. As she worked on her statecraft, she knew she was missing something. She had tried to discover this wonder of wisdom on her own. Whether it was deep introspection, or an all-inclusive education, or the counsel of her advisors, no source internal or external could reveal to her the answers she was searching for. That all changed one day when she heard a report of both a king renowned for his wisdom and a God called the “LORD” who was beyond understanding. Could it be that she would finally find the answers she so desperately longed to know? Or would this be yet another dead-end?

What “hard questions” are weighing down your mind and heart? Any time there is a big enough gap between what we can observe with our senses and what we can understand with our minds, it has a profound effect on us. It stops us dead in our tracks. Explaining the unexplainable has become what we are expected to do: “Science will solve life’s riddles. Reason will triumph over religion.” Don’t get me wrong, both science and reason are astonishing gifts of our wise God, but have they dimmed the wonder of God’s grace in your life and mine? 

We live in the age of Google, the era of Siri, where seemingly every answer is a mere “Hey, Google” or “Hey Siri” away. But you know as well as I do that not even the most advanced AI can’t answer the hardest questions of life. We know who to run to for the answers we seek, yet that sinful center of self within us questions if the magic of grace really does have the answers we long for, or if we have enough to regain the revealing wisdom of grace ourselves.

I wonder if the Queen of Sheba had similar questions: Would Solomon give her the answers she was looking for? Would she have what it took to convince him to help her? Was the LORD really as transcendent as she had heard he was? She left nothing to chance. She brings a Super-Bowl-victory-parade-size entourage of treasures, ranging from gold to rubies to camels. She needed insight. She needed answers. Did she have enough to earn clarity?

It’s a decidedly human thing to think that our treasures can earn answers from God. Many of us have had the gift of knowing God’s grace for a long time. We know that grace means “undeserved love,” yet at times do you and I still fall into the trap of thinking we “know better?” Here’s what I mean: None of us would say we can do anything to earn anything good from God, but have you ever found yourself feeling worthy of blessings after you beat a temptation? None of us would say that the magic of grace isn’t enough, but have you ever discovered how often you get more excited about an Amazon sale or your favorite team winning than the winning grace of Jesus? Is it possible that you and I have gotten so used to the treasure of God’s grace that our personal treasures of abilities, wealth, and knowledge seem shinier and more impressive? Could it be that being an insider of grace has led us to forget what the magic of grace means for an outsider?

The Queen of Sheba felt like a complete outsider. Desperate for wisdom, she pours her heart out to Solomon. She holds nothing back. Every topic under the sun that caused her confusion and discomfort lay exposed before Solomon. Would she finally get answers, or was this months-long trip a bust?

Solomon collects his thoughts, takes a deep breath, and his response took the Queen’s breath away. He could explain everything. No stone was too slick to turn over. No situation too convoluted to unwind. No darkness is left unblinded by the light of God’s wisdom. Solomon’s God-given wisdom brought clarity in a whole new way, and it immediately affected everything the Queen saw. She looked around at Solomon’s majestic palace, his impressive officials, his devoted servants, but one thing was more jaw-dropping than all, “the burnt offerings (Solomon) made at the temple of the LORD.” Solomon’s humble worship put everything into perspective. The LORD “alone does marvelous deeds” as Solomon wrote in Psalm 72. 

The Queen saw the magic of grace and it illuminated everything. It uncovered the true treasure of the Lord. All the reports and stories that seemed too good to be true had been authenticated! As an outsider, she stood amazed at the LORD. She couldn’t believe that people got to hear God’s wisdom every day! No wonder she called the servants blessed! She knew what it was like to be on the outside, but now having become an insider in God’s wisdom, life looked so different.

Those servants were around Solomon every day. They saw sacrifices at the temple every day. They heard the Scriptures every week. Had they become desensitized? Had they lost the magic of grace? Could such questions be asked of us too? If so, how can we regain the magic of grace just as the Queen did? You’ll find the answer in this riddle: “Who is greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42) and who made himself less than a servant?” 

Page ahead to 1 Kings 11 and you’ll see that despite Solomon’s wisdom, despite knowing all the answers, Solomon stopped asking the right questions. He drifted away from the light of the Lord into the darkness of sin. But there is a different King who is far wiser than Solomon, who knows every answer to the deepest questions in your life, who is always here. He is the King who led Magi to lay their treasures at his toddler feet. He is the King who will regain the magic of grace in your life. 

In our modern world, so sterile, disenchanted and magicless, there is a God who defies explanation and exceeds understanding. It has nothing to do with supernatural events or the suspension of nature’s laws. Rather, God puts his wisdom on display in how he builds his Church. With everything else in life, insiders have an advantage. The deserving have a leg up. Order is determined by aptitude. With Christ, it is just the opposite. The insiders and the elite are too comfortable with the status quo to see what God is doing right in their midst. Meanwhile, God moves heaven and earth to bring those furthest away and least deserving face-to-face with his Son.

It’s not up to us to make a month-long trip like the Queen of Sheba or the Magi to regain the magic of grace. Grace personified already made the longest trip of all to enter your heart. Even though we had nothing to offer him, he opened our closed fists of sadness and sin to give us a treasure that “will never perish, spoil, or fade.” Even when you and I seek to explain the unexplainable, he quietly listens. In fact, there is nothing Jesus loves doing more than carving out time in his schedule to spend time with you. Just like the Queen poured out her heart and soul to Solomon, even more so can you bring all of the most perplexing questions of life to Jesus. When the magic of grace seems to have lost its luster, by faith you long to see Jesus through the eyes of the Magi, the wisdom of God in the flesh, and by seeing him, you forget about explaining the unexplainable, but rather, you see life through the eyes of child-like faith. You see the magic of God’s all-encompassing forgiveness, his profound wisdom and intelligence, and the delight he has in you as his dear child. 

If Solomon’s wisdom was enough to draw the Queen of Sheba from a distant land, we have no excuse not to do the same: to leave behind country, home, and family, to bring the very best of what we have to offer, and to be filled with joy and awe. Why? Because through the Bible, we have seen one far greater than he whom the Queen of Sheba saw. When Jesus has uncovered us and given us a regained vision of grace’s magic, our treasures become his treasures. We lay our trophies at his feet, the trophies of ability and wealth. We have a regained perspective on how grace moments are all around us. It’s the magic of grace when one of your kids asks for your forgiveness. It’s “grace magic” when the Lord answers your prayers better than you could have ever anticipated. It’s the wonder of grace when you no longer seek to justify yourself and your place in the world but rather you seek to bring more outsiders in, to be like Paul and seek to be a light in this dark world. It’s the magic of grace that makes the mundane, majestic. It’s the magic of grace that reveals how every single second of your life matters to Jesus. It’s the magic of grace that motivates you to do everything to the glory of God. It’s the magic of grace that takes joy in the unexplainable and rejoices in the eternal unseen hope of Jesus.

As we begin yet another year, see the magic of grace. Let it dictate your thoughts, your calendars, your resolutions. For we have one with us who always infinite steps ahead, Seek him. Bow to him. Live for him. Amen.